Write A Newsletter To Get Site Visitors To Return (And More)!
By Steve Nash
Posted Sunday, July 4, 2004
How many visitors to your site *ever* return?
Not as many as you would like, I bet!
The thing is, it's a lot easier and less time-consuming to promote your site to people who have *already* visited. So how do you do that? Well, you could:
- Ask people to bookmark your site;
- Get people to make your site their homepage (your site needs to be *very* good, though);
- Make your site the next Yahoo! or Blogger or Hotmail (ideal, but not too easy); or...
- PUBLISH AN EZINE OR NEWSLETTER!
Yes, publish a newsletter (and get people to subscribe).
Writing a newsletter is the BEST WAY to stay in touch with site visitors and existing customers.
At the *very least*, you can remind them about your website on a regular basis. But, even better, you get a chance to develop trust between your site visitors and yourself.
And on the faceless Internet, trust is everything!
=> VISIT THIS WEBSITE
Visit Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian's Ezine Marketing Centre. Dr Mani's ezine resource has plenty of free information on ezine publishing.
To quote from the site, Ezine Marketing Centre lets you:
"Create email newsletters, build huge opt in email lists and get advanced ezine marketing tips, strategies and secrets right now. Create email newsletters or ezines to promote your e-business and explode profits - Advertising tips techniques secrets ebook for high profit email list building, getting, buying tips and techniques to increase email list profits..."
You get the idea.
And, Dr Mani sells plenty of information too, for those willing to invest money (as well as time) into their ezine publishing efforts.
(http://www.ezinemarketingcenter.com/)
=> OR VISIT THESE LINKS
(http://www.topica.com)
(http://groups.yahoo.com)
(http://www.domeus.co.uk)
(http://www.roving.com)
(http://www.listbuilder.com)
(http://www.sparklist.com)
=> THEN PROMOTE! PROMOTE! PROMOTE!
As with your website, you need to promote your newsletter, and get people to sign-up. By all means start with your friends and family, and then try these legitimate methods (please don't send unsolicited mail - SPAM wastes everyone's time!):
* You MUST promote your newsletter on your own site
- Put the newsletter sign-up form at the top left or top right of as many of your pages as possible. Offer an incentive to sign-up, sell the benefits of your newsletter (first notice of the next sale, for instance, or chance to win something)
- Use pop-up windows to encourage sign-ups. A little bit controversial, this, but pop-ups *do* increase subscriber sign-ups! Find a script here: (http://javascript.internet.com/)
* You CAN announce your newsletter to the world
- Join various newsletter announcement mailing lists, follow their announcement rules, and announce, announce, announce. (There are loads of these lists at (http://www.topica.com) and (http://www.web-source.net/articlesub.htm)).
- Visit the following websites
(http://www.ezinelocater.com)
Free Email Newsletter Directory
(http://www.ezinesearch.com/search-it/ezine/)
Online ezine directory/listings
(http://www.ezineannouncer.com/)
Online newsletters tools
(http://bestezines.com/submit/)
Submit your ezine to this guide
Okay, okay! Your newsletter may not need all this promotion, but at the very least make it easy to sign-up on your website. Oh! One other way of promoting your newsletter:
* You SHOULD make your newsletter a great read
This is possibly the most important aspect of publishing a newsletter. Here are a few points to consider - try and make sure you:
o add your personality;
o publish on the same date;
o stick to a similar format;
o re-read and re-read to remove mistakes;
o encourage feedback;
o have clear objectives and *meet them*; and o enjoy yourself.
But if nothing else, just keep it short! :-)
=> EVEN DO IT YOURSELF!
Writing a newsletter is a bit difficult not to do yourself, I admit.
What I mean is that you can find many Perl/CGI scripts that allow you to run a newsletter, including subscribe and unsubscribe functions, from your own site. Subscribe Me Lite, written by CGI Script Center, is probably the best free resource to do this. And you can always do a search at CGI Resources.
(And I use Autoresponse Plus - not free though.)
(http://www.siteinteractive.com) - Subscribe Me Lite
(http://www.cgi-resources.com)
(http://www.wise-buys.info/go/autoresponse.html)
=> READ MORE...
You can find out more about email publishing from the following excellent resources.
(http://www.ezine-universe.com)
(http://www.ezineuniversity.com)
=> ONE LAST THING... DON'T FORGET SPAM FILTERS
I originally wrote this article in 2001, when no-one had even heard of the expression spam-filter. Now, to counter the un-relenting spam that we all receive, spam-filters are everywhere.
What does this mean to you, the budding newsletter publisher?
Well, it means that you have to take great care now in what you write in your newsletter. If you don't, your publishing efforts will be wasted as the spam-filters will, wrongly, block your newsletter. And few of your subscribers will read it.
So don't forget the spam filters when you write your newsletter! Do a check to see if you need to change any part of it, first, before you send your mailing out.
You can do a check here -
(http://www.anyonecansellonline.com/free-spam-check.shtml)
--
Writing a newsletter on a regular basis is a great way to keep people returning to your website. There are many tools and resources that show you how. And there are many sites that will publish your newsletter for free (you can even find free content, for goodness sake).
Publish a newsletter and get to know your site visitors - and then let them get to know you! Be original, if you can, and do make sure your ezine gets past the spam-filters.
About the Author
STEVE NASH is the author of the ebook: "3 Super-Tips To Build, Promote And Profit More From Your Website." Download your free copy now! (http://www.wise-buys.info/bonus.shtml) HIS BEST TIP? Use Site Build It! to develop a profitable business online! Learn more, here! (http://site-buildit.com)
